So last night I was at the game, and I had intentions of coming home an writing a fantastic recap....yeah, not so much, but you get some game thoughts instead.

First of all, 7:30 starts to games blow. I can't remember what I did back in the day when Vancouver games started at 7:30, oh right, I was a student so the half hour difference really didn't matter to me then, but they do now. I still can't figure out why both Nashville games in Vancouver started at 7:30 instead of the regular 7pm start...but they did and it sucked.

Here are my game thoughts

My section last night was awesome. It was like a Saturday night in GM Place, but on a Monday

There was a forward line in front of me. Literally. The 5 people who sat in front of me had the following jerseys all in a row: Kesler, H. Sedin, D. Sedin, Wellwood, Burrows. That was awesomesauce. So was the Rypien jersey two rows in front.

The woman to my right, kept yelling shoot every time any player was skating towards the net. It really didn't matter if they were 10 or 20 feet away, this lady wanted to tell them to shoot. Lady: they can't hear you, and you say it times they really shouldn't shoot

Drunk guy to my left....you are not fun, no, really, you weren't

The police took some people out of my section

Ugly sweater night was a FAIL. No one dressed up

I have never been to a game where the game was so badly reffed

The replays of the penalties were not shown for some of the calls in GM Place, or they were shown a minute into the powerplay

Chanting "refs suck!" probably doesn't help with the refs being on your team's side, I'm pretty sure whoever is on the ice already advises them of their displeasure at a call

Love the green men, their upside down feet flailing thing may have made my night

Shea Weber, I may have hated that shot of yours last night...but damn I'll like it at the Olympics

It will be interesting to see how this affects the Canucks in the future, and what other refs think of either the team or of Auger. Will Auger get to ref games in the post season? Maybe that will be a better indication of how the league feels about him. Did I enjoy to read/watch what Burrows said? Definitely, I loved how he spoke his mind. Though, perhaps Burrows should have addressed this with the league behind closed doors, I can't imagine that the league is pleased with him at the moment.

The Canucks are currently 1st place in the NW Division and look to hold on to that lead with a game against the Flames tonight. It's on HNIC!

Remember what happened last time these two teams played? There was a crazy red line goal, Kipprusoff was pulled and Mason Raymond got a hat trick!

Tonight, Lukowich will be in for Aaron Rome, who is out because of this:

You gotta feel bad for the guy. There WAS a lot of blood. Then you ask yourself: Where were those hits when Pyatt was on our team?

Life goes on, good things come out of bad events, like with Rome out, Lukowich is in! This will be Lukowich's first regular season game as a Canuck. In addition, even though Sami Salo took part in the game day skate, he will not play. Instead 21 year old Evan Oberg will be in for Sami Salo.

Ben Kuzma reported yesterday in The Province that Pavol Demitra has started to take one-timer slapshots today in practice. This is the first time he has done so since having his two shoulder surgeries to repair the shoulder injury he sustained in the Vancouver/Chicago playoff series.

Demitra expected that he would be back playing for the Canucks a while ago, but the shoulder did not get better after the first surgery, so the second one was scheduled. Then, it was reported that he wasn't progressing in his recovery, so Demitra went to Slovakia to see a specialist that he used previously and spent two weeks and a bit to work with the medical trainer. He returned back to Vancouver around Christmas to continue his rehab.

And as we all know, Demitra has also been named to Team Slovakia for the Olympics. Yay for being named to the Olympics, but I'm a little hesitant to encourage Demitra in any way to participate in the Olympics. The Canucks have waited approximately 4 months for their player to be ready to go to play for the team, the team he is being paid to play for. And based on the projected timing of when he will be ready to go, that may come just 2 weeks before the puck drop at the first Olympic game on February 16th (though first game for Slovakia in particular is on February 17th against the Czech Republic).

So Demitra will play two weeks for the Canucks before playing in the Olympics? Seriously? The possibility of Demitra re-injuring himself during the Olympics is too great for me to ignore and the timing of when Demitra's return makes me think that if he chooses to play for Slovakia that his decision is a little reckless. I hope that when he returns to the ice, his health is at 100%, rather than him rushing his recovery and returning to play at less than 100% just because he wants to play in the Olympics. This is a player that we are paying 4 million dollars a season for, and has been injured for more than half this season.

Demitra is 34 years old, so realistically this is the last chance he will have to represent his country at the Olympics, thus I can see the motivation in why he would want to play in this Olympics. But those two weeks off during the Olympics if he were to chose not to participate, could give him enough recovery so could he be ready for the long playoff push when the Canucks resume their monster road trip in March. Although I may not be the biggest fan of Demitra as I think he is overpaid and tends to just fade away when he's not scoring, the team could use a winger like him on the second line. So maybe I'm selfish, but I seriously think that someone in the Canucks organization needs to have a little sit down with Demitra and point out to him who is paying him 4 million dollars to be injured, it's the Canucks, not Team Slovakia.

Another freak accident, that's really the only way to describe it. In a collision with Petr Prucha against The Coyotes game on December 29th, Bieksa had another skate laceration. Prucha's skate cut Bieksa just above his left ankle, severing 2 tendons.

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